I think I come under the pleasant person category if there is any such label for an actor,” he chuckles, calling himself a dignified humorist. Well, he is a pleasant person alright. His mere presence in a scene is enough to tickle your funny bones and inject bonhomie even in the tensest of situations. Satish Shah is a character artiste who has entertained us for decades now, both on TV and in films.
Whether it was as Commissioner D’Mello in the cult comedy flick Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, as the friendly Doctor Uncle in Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!, the dreaded Professor Rasai in Main Hoon Na, or his tele roles in Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, Filmi Chakkar and Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai, Satish has never failed to induce laughter with his impeccable comic timing and witty dialogues.
Now with over 200 films under his belt, Satish is taking it easy. Having recently concluded season 2 (web series) of Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai, Satish engages in a candid chat with Sunday Herald about doing comedy, his journey in the film industry and more...
Did you always want to do comedy or is it something that happened by chance?
When one is looking for work, one can’t be choosy. In 1976, finding work with a face like mine was difficult. I was no Shammi Kapoor. I didn’t have the face or personality. I was too well-built to be a comedian, with too soft a face to be a villain, and not at all good looking to be a hero. So, they just couldn’t categorise me as an actor. The only thing that backed me was my diploma from the Film and Television Institute of India. Fortunately or unfortunately, Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi came my way and that’s how I got my break.
Looking back, if I had done a show like Buniyad, and portrayed Masterji, I would still be playing Masterji. That’s how typecast people are in this industry. I can do other roles and I also did do other roles, but I didn’t want to take any chances. There is nothing wrong in being a comedian because my kind of genre of humour was not exactly slapstick. It is more dialogue-oriented and timing-oriented. I never made a fool of myself. I made people laugh with me, not at me.
How important is improvisation in comedy?
Improvisation is nothing but adjusting to a situation. Character actors are signed because they are good and they need to perform well, no matter what. That’s where improvisation comes in.
If someone asks me to write a script, I won’t be able to. But if I am inspired by a script, no matter how bad it is, I can doctor it well. That is what I used to do. I had a selfish motive for doing that. When you are a TV actor, they don’t say a particular director’s show flopped, they will say the actor’s show flopped, no matter how good you are on the show.
If you had to choose between films and TV, which would you choose and why?
I have got equal opportunities in both. I have been a part of some landmark movies like Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! and Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron. But I enjoyed doing TV more.
I had more liberty there. I belonged to an era where if an actor performed better than a hero in a particular scene, the scene got chopped. Fortunately, such things never happened on television. I am a reactor more than an actor, so I always want people around me to be comfortable with me and that helped me give my best.
Not many people know that you were even part of horror movies. Tell us a little about your stint in Ramsay films.
That, I think, was the best part of my career, because that was the only genre where I could do whatever I wanted. In Ramsay films, only the guy who injected humour was a proper actor, rest of the cast members were like props — a skeleton, a hero or a heroine. These films always needed this one guy who could sing songs and entertain people when there was no horror scene. That’s where I came in. I am not ashamed of having acted in these films, in fact, I am quite proud of that phase of my career.
What do you think is lacking in a comic element in films or television now?
Good writing, without a doubt. Writing comedy needs a lot of time, grey matter and observation. A writer in this era of daily soaps is so burdened that he or she has to churn out stale saas-bahu stories. Nobody writes shows like Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai or Filmi Chakkar anymore. Which is why I have never done a daily soap. I think I will lose my ability to perform if it is an everyday 9 to 5 job.
Which of your characters is close to your heart?
I enjoyed portraying Indravadhan Sarabhai the most because I felt that it was me on the show. I see the humour in everyday events and observe people. When its makers had first come to brief me about my role, I listened to them intently for an hour and once they left, I told my wife, ‘Yeh log mujhemera hi character samjha ke gaye hai’.
The motive behind the comeback was to get back together and have fun. It didn’t seem like we had come together after 12 years. It felt like we finished shooting the day before and returned to the sets after.
How would you describe your acting journey?
Fairly smooth. I had my struggles initially. In my early days, I was a glorified extra who would be on the sidelines in an important scene. If you see Ardha Satya carefully, you will see me lurking somewhere in the background without a single dialogue. In Gaman, I thought I will have a lot of lines to speak. Although I shared the scene with the hero Farooq Sheikh, my face was not seen. I went through that whole shit streak before I emerged on the other side.